Twinkie Diet

There has been quite a bit of press given to Mark Haub recently.  He is a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State and recently has been running a bizarre experiment.  (To read all about it, here is the story on CNN.)  He wanted to see if he could lose weight by eating a "convenience store diet."  Basically, he was eating stuff like Twinkies, brownies, Little Debbies, and Doritos and trying to lose weight - just by limiting how much of those things he ate.  The crazy thing is that it worked.  He lost 27 pounds.  It wasn't just the weight loss, either.  He also saw improvements in all his blood tests - cholesterol, body fat, everything.

Now, due to the bizarre nature of the trial, it has gained a lot of attention.  And, with that, there is going to be more ammunition for people who are struggling with weight to show they aren't doing anything wrong. It also will probably lead to numerous misguided efforts by people desperate to lose weight.  There are some important lessons to be learned from this experiment - and none of them are "go eat twinkies."

First of all, look at what he ate.  He had a very limited caloric content.  He took vitamins.  He also ate cans of green beans.  Basically, he eliminated meat and bread and put snack foods in the place of those foods.  Instead of having chicken, rice, and veggies, his dinner would be twinkie, brownie, and veggies.  So, this wasn't eating meals PLUS twinkies.  Twinkies were his meals.

Second, the thing he was trying to prove was that in losing weight, it is a matter of controlling calories more than what you eat.  This is entirely true.  From all of my years of efforts to lose weight, I can verify that calorie control can definitely make you lose weight.  On Weight Watchers, I was able to lose fifty pounds in four months due to being very regimented on their point system.  I rarely went over my allotted calories.  I was very restrictive with things like breakfast (grits or oatmeal) and snacks (fruit).  That way I could be a little flexible with lunch and dinner.  By flexible, I mean that I still found ways to eat pizza, cheeseburgers, cookies.  You could work those into the structure.  So, on the surface that theory is sound - limit calories and lose weight.

BUT!!!  (You knew it was coming.)  For me, and I would wager for most people, that did nothing to break the addictions that were actually behind my struggles.  There were certain foods that I couldn't say no to.  And as long as I could still find ways to have those foods, I never would really have victory.  If there was still a way to work those things into my diet, I found a way.  With Weight Watchers, for example, I would have my grits in the morning (4 points), a banana for snack (2 points), and then a salad for lunch (5-7 points).  That would leave me 24 points for dinner.  That approximately is 1200 calories for dinner!  You can get away with a lot for 1200 calories.  Double cheeseburgers.  Soda.  Pizza.  Was I really learning to eat right?  Or was I just learning how to rig the system.  For me, I couldn't maintain the loss.  That is why we see so many people yo-yo on diets like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers.  They market themselves as "able to eat whatever you want" diets.  So you never learn to break dependence on those foods.

Who would be attracted to the concept of a Twinkie Diet?  Probably someone who has a strong affinity to sweets and baked goods.  Would that person really be successful in this?  Sure, they may lose weight like Professor Haub did.  They may even keep it up for months.  But, I think at some point they would tire of eating Ding Dongs and want other food.  And that is where Haub's diet has a big problem.  If you were to try to add in even healthy food, you go over your limits.  The whole thought of "I think I'll have an apple - that's healthy" would actually hurt you.  The calories in fruit would throw you off.  Not good.

The third thing to learn - which I think is a valuable lesson - is that there is indeed freedom in how you attack your weight issues.  I know that my approach is something that would not work for everyone.  And there are people who don't think I'm doing things right.  "BBQ?  That's not healthy!  Frozen yogurt?  That's just splitting hairs about ice cream."  But, for me, I have lost 93 pounds.  More importantly, I have maintained the loss and the lifestyle for ten months.  Why?  I have eliminated the addictive foods.  I'm not trying to figure out how to work those things back in.  I found better options and use those.  I'm not measuring and religiously monitoring calories.  But, by the very elimination of those fatty, starchy, high calorie foods that used to make up the bulk of my diet, I have greatly reduced my caloric intake.  For months, I was only taking in 1200-1400 calories a day.  Now, I usually am taking in about 1800 calories.

I think that what Haub was trying to prove is that you don't have to just eat lettuce and boiled chicken to lose weight.  The true issue is control.  Can you be controlled in your food intake?  Haub was controlled - very regimented on his exact daily diet.  He just happened to use junk food as his controlled food options.  The problem is that the media is going to seize onto the sensational elements of the experiment. The headline is always "Man loses 27 pounds on twinkie diet."  That gets you to click on the article (I did).  I'm afraid that some people are actually going to try this and get into worse trouble.  Instead of finding the control they need, they are actually going to further unleash their addictions.  Unless they just get nauseated by sheer quantity of Twinkies.  Maybe it could be like immersion therapy.